Saturday, May 3, 2008

B is for a mixed Batch

Still in Donnelly and Bear Island, we could see that they were doing a controlled Burn in the long-leafed pine woods. These trees were the dominant tree in the southern coastal landscape originally, but it was such excellent timber that it was nearly wiped out and replaced with the much faster growing slash pine, which the paper industry favored because it could be harvested in 12-20 years. Now there is a big push to get people to plant long-leafed pine again. It's healthy for these trees that the brush under them be burned annually. They have a very deep tap root which enables them to not be damaged by the fire.


We drove by some recently burned areas later. Here an old stump still smolders.

A couple of Big Birds fit in the theme.A Boat-tailed grackle and a turkey vulture.

And Blue Berry Blossoms (wild)


A Butterfly--a southern cloudy-winged skipper.

A Bumble Bee--happy in early clover

Also to fit in the theme--a Mexican free-tailed Bat's Butt. There was a large colony of bats along the eaves of a shed. We could hear them, but only got glimpses of body parts since it was daytime.

To end on a better note--a Beautiful wild azalea (Pinkster) Blossom

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Thanks.